Council on Aging – Southern California’ Friendly Visitor program volunteer Emma Jurgenson spends time with a client. The nonprofit is hoping to get a boost from Giving Tuesday, started in 2012 by New York cultural center 92nd Street Y to celebrate and encourage giving, kicking off the holiday charitable season. (Photo courtesy of Council on Aging – Southern California)

We’ve feasted on Thanksgiving Day, braved the malls on Black Friday, supported local shopkeepers on Small Business Saturday and let our fingers do the buying on Cyber Monday.

What’s left?

For those who support or rely on the services of thousands of nonprofits here and around the world, it’s time for Giving Tuesday.

Caroline Njeru, a volunteer with the Council on Aging – Southern California’s Friendly Visitor program keeps company with program client Marti Kalahuntii. The organization is participating in the 24-hour Giving Tuesday that helps boost donations of money, time and expertise to nonprofits. Find more information about the national movement at givingtuesday.org. The official website has a nifty tool that shows which organizations are participating in your area. (Photo courtesy of Council on Aging – Southern Californa)

Lahoma Snyder, an ombudsman with the Council on Aging – Southern California, asks a resident how she’s feeling at Anaheim Residential Care. The ombudsmen are trained advocates who watch out for the well being of people in long-term care facilities, one of several programs the nonprofit runs. (File photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Council on Aging – Southern California’ Friendly Visitor program volunteer Emma Jurgenson spends time with a client. The nonprofit is hoping to get a boost from Giving Tuesday, started in 2012 by New York cultural center 92nd Street Y to celebrate and encourage giving, kicking off the holiday charitable season. (Photo courtesy of Council on Aging – Southern California)

With a record-breaking $168 million raised last year on Giving Tuesday, nearly 45 percent more than in 2015, the bar for donors is high. But Giving Tuesday is about more than just dollars. Many nonprofits also get a recognition boost from the social media campaigns that characterize #GivingTuesday and from the new volunteers they may attract to donate their time and talents.

“We don’t have a big marketing budget. One of the things we see is that it increases our social media awareness and drives more donations,” said Lisa Wright Jenkins, president and chief executive officer of Council on Aging – Southern California, whose outreach to older adults includes Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. “Absolutely, every dollar helps.”

The Council on Aging serves about 290,000 older adults annually with a variety of programs. The nonprofit has participated in Giving Tuesday the past three years, but took an especially painful financial hit this year when it lost $425,000 in federal and state funds through budget cuts — at the same time it is seeing demand for services rise with the population in Southern California aging at a rapid pace.

“We don’t think we’re going to get it back next year and with the current climate in Washington, I’m concerned there will be more cuts,” Jenkins said. “One of the best things that Giving Tuesday does, it helps build support for the program.”

One effort in particular the organization hopes Giving Tuesday will help support both financially and by attracting volunteers is its Friendly Visitor program, which matches people in the community — who are trained and undergo background screening — with frail and isolated seniors living at home alone. So far, 300 participants have been matched, but another 102 are on a waiting list.

“The ones that concern me most are the people on our waiting list who just want a friend,” Jenkins said.

Giving Tuesday was started by New York City’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation as a counterpoint to the consumerism that ushers in the holiday season right after Thanksgiving Day. Growing in popularity, and going global in 2014, the 24-hour charitable event last year engaged thousands of nonprofit organizations operating in 98 countries.

Supporters include such big-name philanthropists as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is working with Facebook to match up to $2 million in funds raised for nonprofits in the United States on the social media giant. Facebook also is waiving its fees for donations made to nonprofits on Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday comes along at the time of year — the start of the holiday season — when people might be feeling more generous and will either increase or initiate a charitable donation.

“We kind of see it as the start of the launch of our end of the year appeal,” said Ana Velouise, director of communications and public affairs for the Downtown Women’s Center, an organization that has served the impoverished and homeless women of Skid Row in Los Angeles since 1978.

Giving Tuesday plays a significant role in helping the Downtown Women’s Center serve about 200 women daily who come to its day center at Fifth and San Pedro Streets, attracting 10 percent of the nonprofit’s online donors for all of 2016, Velouise said.

“It helps to really garner attention to both our cause and the unique role we have to play in ending homelessness in Los Angeles County.”

Tips on Charitable Giving

On the eve of Giving Tuesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued some tips to help donors avoid charitable scams. Among them:

Theresa Walker is a Southern California native who has been a staff writer at The Orange County Register since 1992. She specializes in human interest stories and social issues, such as homelessness. She also covers nonprofits and philanthropy in Orange County. She loves telling stories about ordinary people who do the extraordinary in their communities.